Page 2427 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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and that takes it out of the court system. I think some of the parking people suggested to us on several occasions during the briefing that people who do not pay their telephone bills in time have their phone cut off and they have to pay a late connection fee. Really this measure puts parking infringements on that particular level.
Mr Wood: The courts must be happy about this.
MR STEFANIAK: The courts are delighted with this Bill, in terms of that particular effect, as are the police. So generally we are very supportive of what the Bill is aiming to do.
There is one aspect, however, which causes us concern. I am not too sure how we are going to go on this one, but I am a little bit concerned about the attitude of certain people which I think shows quite a bit of hypocrisy or, at best, a lack of understanding of what the law is all about and a lack of consistency. I am concerned that there is no provision for a person to get a courtesy reminder. Now if you do not pay your electricity bill, if you do not pay your rates, or if you do not pay your telephone bill, you will get a reminder.
Mrs Nolan: I am not sure about rates, but all the others.
MR STEFANIAK: Well, certainly with electricity and telephones you get a reminder. It is common practice, when sending out accounts - and indeed in businesses too - to get a reminder. There is quite often a 30-day, a 60-day and a 90-day reminder if you do not pay a bill. That is common business practice. Remember, we are getting parking infringements into the civil law and out of the criminal law, and I think it is most important that people are given that reminder.
The Liberal Party had discussions with the Government, the parking infringement people, the Administration and the legislative drafter. In our discussions it became apparent that it would be difficult legislating for reminder notices to be sent out; however, that could happen administratively. Accordingly, we drew up amendments, which have been circulated, to ensure that this could be done at an appropriate time. I will speak very briefly to those amendments.
I understand Mr Duby has also put out amendments, which are not put forward, with a view to having reminder notices sent out. The idea is that the time for issuing a parking infringement notice be extended from 14 days to 28. After 14 days, by way of administrative action, a courtesy notice would be sent out, telling the person that he or she has 14 days in which to pay. This covers the situation, which is not infrequent, of persons having their infringement notices taken from a windscreen. Some people do that, in fact, and put it on their own windscreen in an attempt to ensure that they are not pinged by the parking inspectors.
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